Cognates incognito

I remember some of the first moments of exposure I had to a foreign language. For the most part learning a foreign language is expectedly different, hence the foreign element, but there are certain elements to a foreign language that aren't so foreign. I'm referring to cognates. Cognates are a wonderfully useful tool when learning a foreign language, and greatly reduce the amount of memorization necessary when acquiring a foreign language. Cognates usually exist within languages and languages related to each other, such as an vulgar Latin language(French, Spanish, Italian) all of which include a vocabulary with many easily distinguishable words for English speakers. They do however provide a slight bit of confusion for the initial who may mistake cognates as a mimic of the words they want to learn.

A prime example of a one-on-one conversation with someone who may not be well versed in the fact that cognates exist would consist perhaps of an English person asking how they might say "car" or "garage" in Spanish, both of the words are strikingly similar to their English counterparts "carro" and "garaje"  might be mistaken for a poor mimic and add to some initial confusion for the learner.

Just some short thoughts on cognates. An important feature of related languages to be aware of.